Bridget Bites : Kindly Kate - Vegan Philly Cheese Steak

This recipe has a few steps in it, and the first one is to make the seitan. You could buy the seitan, and then just follow the rest of the recipe, but I highly recommend making your own, it tastes better and is much more economical. This seitan recipe will make a fair amount, you could cut the recipe in half, but I love having left overs to put in sandwiches or my favorite way to eat it is to crumble it into vegan sausage, and fry up with lots of spices for topping pizzas.

The next step will be to make the cheese portion of this Philly cheese steak. Making vegan cheese can be tricky, especially vegan cheese that melts. That is why I went with using a cheese sauce for this recipe - it is so easy to make, but has the creamy consistency that makes melted cheese oh so delicious. It is my take on a provolone cheese, and require soaked cashews so make sure you prepare those ahead of time. Just soak one cup of cashews, fully submerged in filtered water in a glass jar for 6-8 hours. I really love this cheese sauce, and highly recommend using the leftovers to pour over your favorite type of pasta for a vegan Mac and Cheese… Just sayin’ :)

This sandwich definitely feels fancier than a classic Philly cheese steak, there is truffle oil in the cheese sauce after all! But I love it, it’s decadent and flavorful, plus very fun to put together and very messy to eat (in the best possible way!)

This recipe will make 2 sandwiches, however there will be plenty of seitan and provolone cheese sauce left over to make more, so just fry up some more veggies if you’re serving for than 2 people.

Kindly Kate - Vegan Philly Cheese Steak

Ingredients

Two bread rolls of choice (I used a whole grain seeded loaf but hoagies are the classic Philly cheese steak bread)

1/2 white onion cut into thin strips

1 medium green bell pepper cut into thin strips

Olive oil

Salt and black pepper

For the Seitan

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

1 white onion diced

1-2 cloves garlic

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp old bay seasoning

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 cup vegetable stock

1 tbsp tamari or soy sauce

1/4 cup chickpea flour

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 1/2 cups vital wheat gluten

Cook the onion in a medium frying pan in olive oil for 5 minutes, until the onion is soft and translucent.

Add the garlic, and spice to the pan and cook for another 5 minutes. Add water if necessary to prevent sticking. Remove from heat.

Transfer the onions and garlic to a blender, and add in the tomato paste, vegetable stock, tamari/soy sauce, chickpea flour, and nutritional yeast. Blend until smooth. Scraping the sides down with a spatula as you go if necessary.

Transfer the mixture from the blender to a large mixing bowl and then stir in all the vital wheat gluten until evenly combined. This may take some time but the result should be a thick dough-like consistency.

Next you will knead the dough. Begin by flouring a cutting board, then spread the dough out onto it in an even circle and begin by folding the top half of the down down onto itself as pressing it back out into an even circle. Continue this for 2-3 minutes until mixture becomes more airy and springy.

Wrap the dough mixture tightly in aluminum foil, twisting the foil at the ends.

Set the foil wrapped seitan into your steamer and steam for 1 hour, flipping with tongs half way through. *I don’t have a steamer so I simply put a metal strainer on top of a large pot, filled with water and cover it with a lid. It does the trick. Feel free to use whatever steaming method you prefer.

Remove from heat and let the seitan cool before placing it in an airtight container to set in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight. The seitan will last in the fridge covered for 1 week.

For the Provolone Cheese sauce

Ingredients

1 cup cashews (soaked 6-8 hours)

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

4 tbsp unsweetened plant based milk

1/2 tsp salt

6-10 tbsp of hot water or enough until desired consistency is reached

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend on high until completely creamy and smooth. Add the water as you blend until a pourable but not runny consistency is achieved. Scrape down the sides as you go if necessary.

Store the access cheese sauce in an airtight container in the fridge, it’ll last up to one week.

Once the most important parts of this recipe are prepared (the meat and the cheese of course) you can get to work on frying some veggies to top it all off. I like to stick with the classic green pepper and onion for toppings, however mushrooms would be great too!

Add the onion to a frying pan with a drizzle of olive oil over medium heat. Cook for five minutes until soft. Then add in the green pepper, salt, and black pepper and cook for another 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Remove the seitan from the fridge and cut it into thin slices, about 1 cm thick each. I use 3 slices for each sandwich but feel free to use as much as you’d like.

Brush each slice of seitan with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Place the seitan in a medium-large frying pan over medium heat and cook on each side for 3-5 minutes until browned.

While the seitan is cooking, toast your chosen bread.

When the seitan is finished, it is time to assemble the sandwiches! I begin my laying the seitan down inside the roll, top it with a generous serving of onion and pepper, and finally drizzle it liberally with the provolone cheese sauce. Et voila! You have a vegan take on a Philly cheese steak sandwich.